I’m Still Alive and This Week’s Philippines in Photos 6.7.1.7

I’ve been busy with a bunch of content contracts over the past few weeks, so I haven’t been able to do much in the way of You Tube videos or posts on this site. There is real irony in being a content writer – you are always doing content for other people’s websites and when business is busy, you don’t have the time to do the content for your own…

So, after my yearly trip back to the good old US of A, I’ve now been back in the Philippines for a bit over two weeks. I’ve pretty much gotten over the jet lag (took about a week), and I’ve pretty much finished up those aformentioned websites. So, now it’s time to work my own content…

While I was in the US, I purchased a Nikon D5100 DSLR. I’ve been looking to fool around with photography for a while, and now that I’ve finally gotten down to doing it, it’s quite a fun little hobby. And for those here with too many hours in the day and not enough to do, you might want to check out DSLR photography.

Now, understand that I know absolutely NOTHING about photography. I actually put up some of the photos on our Facebook page and one of our subs downloaded and edited it, showing me the proper way in which it was composed. I I guess ‘composition’ is pretty important…) To learn more, I’ve been watching some YT vids on the topic and perusing some websites dedicated to noobie photographers. So, perhaps over time I will figure it out.

In this post, I’m going to show seven of the photos I took and give a little background on each.

This is a pretty good example of both the power of Adobe Lightroom and the dangers of using “too much” of it. For those not in the know, Lightroom is a powerful photo editing program that you can import RAW files into and manipulate (light and color levels, cropping, etc.) to pretty much your heart’s content. In this photo, I used Lightroom to boost the colors – basically just taking a pretty plain photo and making it really pop in post production.

This is the also the photo that which Carl Lambert downloaded and re-edited, showing the proper composition. He cropped it to 16×9 and made sure the boats front was to the left of the shot, thus welcoming in the viewer to the scene. Thanks for the tips, Carl. Here’s his photo:

HORSING AROUND

This little feller can be found across the street from Silliman University Medical Center. There’s a big park there that is usually home to Silliman student activities and ROTC training. (I actually feel bad whenever I see all the college kids out there parading around in uniform as the merciless tropical sun beats down upon them….) The are two horses here that are usually snipping the grass and chilling out in the shade. A small horse cart is also in the park, but I’ve never seen them tied up to it. If I was a horse, living in the field is about the best you can get: Lots of grass, abundant shade and handlers that give you daily showers. (I’ve got a photo of a horse shower that I will put up later on.)

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

This was taken while Michell and I were down at Silliman beach. It’s more of a local place than anything else, and you can always find local Dumaguentanos down there in the evening cooling off. The dog in this photo wasn’t too keen on swimming. Despite this, the kids in the photo would chase him to the beach and drag him back to deeper water to get some more exercise.

I like how this one turned out. This was taken on the boulevard. This rugged gent was squatting on the seawall, and I asked him if it would be OK if I took his photo. He acquiesced and here he is. Note that I also used a little too much Lightroom on this – the water wasn’t actually that blue….

This area is just north of Hayahay Restaurant (home of the delectable Dumaguete Express!). The mornings in the Philippines are absolutely gorgeous and with the sweet lighting and great dynamic range (thanks, Petey V), getting (semi)cool photos is like shooting ducks in a barrel. I have no idea what these concrete casings are for – I just really liked the glowing moss.

This was taken at extreme range. I was lucky enough to get a Tamron 18-200 mm lens with the Nikon D5100, and the telephoto on it is pretty sweet. Despite being at distance, these days could sense the camera – detecting camera lens seems to be a unique skill that Filipinos have perfected! I especially like the day in the background – Michell thought it was hilarious that she looks like she is fighting for her little life in water that is about a foot deep.

This is also a case of using too much Lightroom. I was editing it with Michell right next to me, and she liked the colors, so I exported it as such. This is right by the airport – you can see the end of the runway jutting off into the water.

OK, so that’s a few of the photos I’ve done. I have others and will be putting them up as time permits.

Share this:

Related

Comments 4

Ned, be careful when taking pictures of children in swimsuits.
A mate of mine took a camera to his kids swimming carnival and tried to take some photos of his kids swimming.
Some member of the PC brigade called the police claiming he was a pervert.
He ended up being banned from his kids swimming classes.
That little girl in the front looks a bit like Betty Boo though.

You can also shoot RAW mode with many modern phones. My Samsung S7 shoots RAW and you can import those into Lightroom for further editing. iPhone 7 can also shoot in RAW as well. The Philippines is a great place to shoot – the sunrises and sunsets are basically EZ Mode for good photos. 🙂